Pfl 2065 
.G7 B65 
Copy 1 



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Pfi 2065 
.G7 B65 

copvi A LETTEB 



TO THE 



REV. DR. MOBERLY, 

HEAD MASTER OF WINCHESTER : 

BEING A EEPLY TO A PAMPHLET BY 
E. E. BOWEN, ESQ. 

ENTITLED 

"THE NEW NATIONAL GBAMMAB." 



BY 

BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY, D.D., 

HEAD MASTER OP SHREWSBURY SCHOOL. 



Ovx). 8i8dl-eis tovtov Kp6vos &v. — 
Efrrep 7' avrbv xP"h (TcoOrjvai 
teal fify \a\iav \x.6vov ao-tcrjo-ai. 

Aristoph. Nub. 929. 



{PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.) 



1866. 






LONDON : 

PKINTED BY C. F. HODGSON & SON, 

©OUGH SQUARE, FLEET STREET, E.C. 

205449 
'13 



A LETTER, 

#c. 8fc. 



My deae Dr. Moberly, — 

You are aware that Mr. E. E. Bowen, 
one of the Masters of Harrow, has privately circulated a 
pamphlet attacking what he calls "The New National 
Grammar/ ' meaning thereby " The Public School Latin 
Primer/' the reprint of which is now all but complete. 

As my name is prominently brought forward by 
Mr. Bowen (in spite of my remonstrance against this 
course), I seem to have no choice but to notice his 
pamphlet; and this is the more needful, as it contains 
errors of fact, which ought to be corrected. I regret to 
say, that I regard the circulation of this paper at the 
present moment as an act which transgresses the ordinary 
laws of fairness and courtesy. 

In the first place, if it was fit to be done at all, it 
should have been done many months ago. To establish 
this, I must recall the circumstances of the two past 
years relating to this matter. More than two years ago 
(not, as Mr. Bowen says, one year) the nine Head Masters 
of the Public Schools included in Her Majesty's Commis- 
sion met to consider various matters of common interest ; 
among others, the adoption of Common Grammars, as sug- 

A 2 



4 



gested by the Commissioners. A feeling was expressed 
favourable to this measure ; but no actual motion was 
then brought forward. Still I believe it was pretty well 
understood that at the next meeting a proposal would be 
made by one of the body to take my Grammar as the 
basis of a new Latin Grammar. I must here say, in 
passing, that I expressed a wish from the first to absent 
myself from this discussion ; but my presence was thought 
necessary for the purpose of explanation. Of course I 
gave no vote. I took no part (explanation excepted) in 
the debate ; and — to meet at once what I will not suppose 
to be an insinuation in Mr. Bowen's pamphlet, but what 
has been very broadly insinuated elsewhere — I add, that 
to influence high-minded gentlemen and scholars, as- 
sembled to consult for the public good on a matter of 
supreme importance, was a thing as far removed from my 
desire as from my power. 

Just about two years back the proposal in question was 
made, and would, seemingly, have been then carried, if 
one gentleman had not desired further time to examine 
and test my book, with which he was not familiar. This 
wish received immediate assent ; and it was not until the 
last week in June, 1864, that the motion was carried 
without a dissenting voice, none being more cordial in its 
support than the gentleman last-mentioned. I was re- 
quested, by Resolution, to prepare and lay before the 
body a revise of my Grammar, and to print about 200 
copies for distribution among the Masters of the nine 
Schools, and such others as I might desire to consult. 
It was also declared, by common consent and mutual 
understanding, that all Masters in the Schools should be 
free to communicate with me respecting the form and 



contents of the Grammar ; and, as I was going to Switzer- 
land for change of air, my address was given with that 
express view. Yet Mr. Bowen (p. 16), after hearing 
these statements from me by letter, can speak of " the 
privacy with which the matter has been conducted." 
Certainly the fact was not proclaimed by advertisement 
in the newspapers ; but, short of that, I know not how it 
could have been made more public than it was. For my own 
part, I supposed that all the Schools learnt it through their 
Head Masters. It was generally known at Cambridge ; 
I believe it was no secret at Oxford ; I heard it mentioned 
in quarters which it seemed little likely to reach. There 
are, I know, Masters of Harrow to whom it had been 
communicated. Why Mr. Bowen should have remained 
in ignorance for a whole year, is to me a mystery. That 
he did so remain, is unfortunate ; for that was the time 
when he ought to have expressed to me and others his 
opinions about grammar and grammatical teaching ; that 
was the time when he, and those of whom he speaks as 
feeling with him, should have made their opinions known ; 
and, if those opinions could not prevail, have entered 
their protest. He and they should not have allowed me, 
for nearly two years, to devote my time, my thought, and 
my health to this one subject ; and then, later than the 
eleventh hour, come forward and demand, virtually, that 
the fruit of this toil be consigned to the flames, and a 
new book substituted, which shall not be a Grammar, 
but a mere book of exercises, accompanied with a few 
paradigms of declension, &c. 

A draft of the proposed new Grammar, so far as 
done, and including all lesson-matter, was circulated 
among the Schools, and elsewhere, in the spring of 1865. 
Mr. Bowen says he was indebted to my courtesy for a 



c 



copy. I hope such courtesy would not have been want- 
ing ; but I was simply obeying the terms of the Resolu- 
tion. 

Here was another opportunity for Mr. Bowen to speak 
to me and others. But he remained silent. 

Then the Primer, as proposed, was similarly circulated 
in November last. Two months were to elapse before 
the Head Masters should meet to consider its contents. 
During those two months Mr. Bowen was still silent. 

In the second week of January, the Head Masters met 
under your hospitable roof to review the Primer. No 
voice from Mr. Bowen reached us then, or had reached us 
at any previous time. 

Various alterations in form and matter were suggested 
and discussed ; and I am sure you will bear me out in 
saying that all which appeared to be generally acceptable 
were by me willingly accepted, though they involved 
an almost entire reprint of the book. Indeed I do not 
think that any point affecting the Primer came to a divi- 
sion, but that a short conversation led to speedy agree- 
ment. 

During the last month I have been engaged in the 
revise and reprint; and within that time I have had 
letters from Mr. Bowen intimating his intention to 
" agitate" against the book, but not favouring me with 
the slightest hint as to the nature of his objections. 
I have laid before him what I deem to be the unfairness 
and inconvenience of the course he takes ; but I have 
only so far prevailed (if indeed I can be said to have pre- 
vailed at all) as to induce him to assail, by private, not 
public, circulation, a book placed in his hands for con- 
fidential use — a book not yet published — nay more, a 



book never to be published in the form he has now before 
him. Yes ; this is the position in which Mr. Bo wen has 
placed himself by the step he has taken. He has actually- 
circulated statements about this book which are at va- 
riance with its present contents ; and cited many things 
which, when it appears, he will not find in it. 

On this state of facts, I leave it to all men of honour and 
feeling, who read these lines, to determine whether I — 
and indeed the nine Head Masters collectively — have 
received from Mr. Bowen courteous and fair treatment. 

I protested, too, against Mr. Bowen's calling me by 
name into the arena, not because I dreaded his assault, 
not even because I have scant time and no taste for con- 
troversy, but for other and obvious reasons. I told him 
that my name would not be in the title-page or preface. 
Yet all he does is to append a note on this point, which I 
cannot accept as an adequate representation of what I 
meant to convey to him. 

It would be waste of time to follow Mr. Bowen step by 
step through the desultory and somewhat inconsistent 
declamation in which his opinions are conveyed. Neither 
will I meet him with his favourite weapons of gibe and 
jest. There is a comic side to everything ; but, if it be 
true, in Horace's limited sense, that 

Eidiculum acri 
Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res, 

it is equally, and much oftener, true that 

Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est. 
I shall therefore take, in my own order, the several 
topics of controversy advanced in Mr. Bowen' s pamphlet, 
and explain the grounds of the opinions to which his 
are opposed. In doing so, I may sometimes use the 



s 



pronoun "we," when I am sure that the collective sense 
of the nine Head Masters has been expressed ; sometimes 
f ' I/ 3 when I do not feel that the question is one upon 
which they can be said to have pronounced a distinct 
verdict. 

I. As to the adoption of a Common Grammar. Mr. 
Bowen, ' ' for himself," " thinks it unnecessary." So did 
not the Commissioners think ; so did not those who were 
examined by them on the subject ; so did not the Head 
Masters, when it came before them. So most assuredly 
do not I, after 36 years' experience, at Harrow and 
Shrewsbury, of the immense evil caused by the use of 
various grammars in Preparatory Schools. It is not long 
since I was asked by a country gentleman of this neigh- 
bourhood, an Etonian and First Classman, with reference 
to his own children, when my book was coming out? 
Some little conversation ensuing with regard to the plan : 
" Oh," he said, c ' it does not so much matter what the 
book is, as it does that we should have one common 
standard for use." This was, and obviously was meant to 
be, the statement of a very strong opinion in the form of 
paradox ; and I only cite it as the unprejudiced feeling 
of a very sensible man in favour of that measure which 
Mr. Bowen, in the face of preponderating authority, 
"thinks unnecessary." Again it must be asked, why 
Mr. Bowen did not proclaim this opinion two years ago, 
when the question was under consideration, instead of 
waiting for the moment when the book is complete and 
on the eve of being published ? 

II. As to the plan of the Elementary Grammar. Ought 
it to be a scientific outline (within judicious limits) sup- 
ported by a book of exercises ; or a book of exercises, 



9 



with a few essential paradigms, but without a scientific 
outline ? Mr. Bowen votes for the latter method. The 
Head Masters unanimously preferred the former. I say- 
unanimously ' } because no dissenting opinion was ex- 
pressed. The Head Masters had before them a grammar 
on Mr. Bowen' s plan — the Charterhouse Grammar ; but 
no voice was raised favourable to the adoption of that 
book as the Common Grammar, or as the basis of a 
Common Grammar. My belief is, that the general feeling 
was decidedly against it. Mr. Bowen must be well aware 
that the arguments he urges against scientific grammar, 
and the difficulties he suggests in its application to the 
teaching of boys, contain nothing new. He might cite 
in favour of such views high names ; as those of Milton, 
Locke, Basedow, Pestalozzi, and many more : and I doubt 
not those views find much support outside our Universities 
and Public Schools, and some little within them. He 
must not suppose the Head Masters unfamiliar with such 
opinions and arguments. For myself I can say, that they 
have occupied much of my attention and consideration in 
the course of my grammatical studies and writings. And 
the conclusion to which I have come is this : — Give me a 
sound scientific grammarian, who is at the same time an 
able teacher, and I will trust him to teach Latin Grammar 
to children with a book of well-arranged extracts and a 
few paradigms. But " quis custodiet custodes?" Who 
will ensure the exercise-book against falling into the hands 
of men altogether incompetent to use it for the inculcation 
of sound principles ? It cannot be done. The scientific 
outline, therefore, (or Primer) is the Standard for the 
guidance of teachers as well as learners, — I should rather 
say, for the guidance of teachers even more than of 

a 3 



10 



learners ; because the former are supposed to see its 
value as a whole, the latter gradually acquire it, part by 
part : though every step they firmly take is a solid gain > 
and those who have mastered the whole have gone very 
far towards a mastery of Latin and its literature. No doubt, 
the scientific outline may be unwisely and badly taught, as 
well as wisely and well. And most of the instances which 
Mr. Bowen cites as beyond the limits of the learner's 
intellect, I meet with this simple observation : I do not 
suppose any master to force upon the memory of his boys, 
by a system of rote -learning, any parts except (1) para- 
digms, and of these, the first time or so, a selection only ; 
(2) such rules as he will be afterwards required to cite in 
"parsing;" (3) matter containing principles of great 
importance, which have to be kept constantly in mind : 
but with respect to these last, I observe that, if any boys 
show incompetence to master them where they first stand 
(for instance, all the sections which come before mensa), 
such boys should not be kept poring over them against 
the grain, but should go on with the rest to the paradigms, 
and be referred back to the rules of principle as occasion 
offers. The same remark applies to the rest of the book 
generally, more especially to Syntax. I say, then, that 
Mr. Bowen has assumed, without any right, that I expect 
all the matter in the Primer to be learnt by heart equally, 
and with equal insistence of the teacher. And again, he 
seems to suppose that I wish to keep a boy working for 
a great length of time at the Primer alone, without con- 
struing and exercise work. Very far from it. I had 
hoped that I should be able to get ready for publication, at 
the same time, its companion book, " Subsidia Primaria," 
the plan of which is what I suppose Mr. Bowen desires 



11 



for the Primer itself. But the claims on my time, and 
the interruptions (this among the rest) to which I am 
subject, have made it impossible to get this book ready 
for the ensuing school term. I must, however, protest 
against the fairness of any criticism which does not take 
the two books together ; or does not, at least, in the absence 
of the second, assume the Primer to be accompanied with 
an efficient construing and exercise book. 

This view of the question might be expanded into a 
little volume; but, as I do not expect to convert Mr. 
Bowen, I must content myself with stating, and so far ex- 
plaining, my opinion. But, as I have suggested a few 
authorities in his favour, I must, on the other side, 
remark that in Germany the deeply learned, in 
France the theoretic, and in England the practical, 
the weight of authority and example is in favour of 
Standard Grammars ; and I am not acquainted with 
any seat of learning in which they are dispensed with. 
Indeed, if the advantage of Mr. Bowen's method is so 
great and so obvious, having been before the world for 
such a length of time, we may well ask, how it comes to 
pass that those advantages have not been demonstrated 
with evidence irresistible; how it is that scholars have 
not started up from private schools, throwing into the 
shade all the puny products of our old and worn out 
Public Schools, — scholars who would carry off with the 
utmost ease University Scholarships in their first year, 
and claim, if strict justice were to be done, First Classes 
(incomparabiles) of their own. In short, we are entitled 
to ask, where are the experimental proofs of the excellence 
of Mr. Bowen's method ? There are none extant, though 
the method itself has been practically in existence for a 



12 



century or more. Surely, then, the Head Masters of our 
English Public Schools may well be excused from com- 
mitting themselves to the formal adoption of a plan in 
favour of which nothing can be adduced but crude theories, 
unsustained by any real proofs of success. 

III. Mr. Bowen ranks himself with those who " doubted 
whether it really is, at the present moment, desirable to 
stereotype one Grammar for permanent national use.'" 
There will always be those who doubt whether the time 
to begin that, which many deem 'the better/ is f the 
present moment/ But the Head Masters thought the 
time when the authority of the Queen's Commissioners 
suggested change, ivas a desirable time for a desirable 
change. It is not for me to say by what reasons they 
were severally led to select my book for the basis of the 
Common Grammar. But I consider it not out of place to 
state what facts they had before them of a nature calcu- 
lated to influence their opinion. The nine Schools used 
four Latin Grammars, in the proportion of 4, 3, 1, 1. 
The figure 3 represents my Grammar, the latest published 
of the four. It was known that, in 20 years, this Gram- 
mar had attained an annual circulation of nearly- 7000 
copies, and had been every year enlarging its circulation. 
It was known to be (except the Charterhouse) the only 
Grammar which had laid aside the old rules for gender, 
perfects, &c. It was known to be the only Grammar 
which had grappled with the laws of Mood, as dependent 
on the analysis of the Compound Sentence; and it was 
known (I do not say this without authority) that, in re- 
gard to Latin Prose Composition, those who had been 
trained in these principles stood well at the Universities. 
It was known, also, that the author was far from regarding 



13 



his book as an ideal of what a Grammar should be; that 
he looked upon it as a compromise, and desired an 
opportunity to adapt it more, thoroughly to the principles 
of advanced philology. It was known, also, that by 
God's blessing he seemed to have health and strength left 
to undertake this task. These facts, I say, may possibly 
have had some weight with the Head Masters. They may 
have thought this a concurrence of circumstances which 
might not recur so favourably at the close of Mr. Bowen's 
cycle of thirty years. In any case, if thirty years should 
produce so great an advance in the philological develop- 
ment of a dead language as Mr. Bowen seems to con- 
template, I see no reason why the Common Grammar 
may not be subject to the purgation of a new Reform. 

In quitting this topic, may I be allowed to remark 
that our English classical scholars are too much in the 
habit of appealing to the authority of foreign writers, and 
neglecting their own countrymen ? The name of Madvig, 
for instance, has been of late years cited on almost every 
occasion. Yet, whatever Madvig's merits as a grammarian 
may or may not be, I venture to say, from intimate know- 
ledge, that his contributions to Latin philology cannot be 
compared in value with those of Donaldson and Key. 

TV. Mr. Bowen' s minuter criticisms are, for the most 
part, undeserving of a reply. Where they are not mis- 
statements, due to his rashness in assailing a book which 
is not the book, they are reducible to empty cavil or 
pointless sarcasm. It would seem, however, that (be- 
sides the fact of its being scientific) he regards two 
points in the Primer as specially objectionable : — (1) the 
use of rhyming lines to assist the learner's memory; 
and (2) the adoption of a Syntax with Latin instead 



14 



of English rules. I shall now speak of both these 
points, simply premising that, if the feeling of the other 
Masters had been against one or the other, I should 
not have been disposed to offer any resistance to that 
feeling. The use of memorial lines in the higher book 
did meet with objection ; but I heard none offered to their 
use in the Primer. 

(1.) Mr. Bowen pours out the vials of his wrath upon 
these unhappy lines through two pages and a half of cheap 
and easy ridicule ; calling them " gloomy poetry," " gram- 
matic muse," lc run of Walter Scott," " Pegasus run 
riot," Ci canto," &o. &c. : but in that space I have 
looked in vain for any single reason why children, who, 
as he elsewhere urges, find grammar laborious and uphill 
work, should not have their labour eased by these technical 
helps to the mind and the memory. Positively the only 
approach to a reason which I have been able to discover 
is, that boys learning these rhymes may mistake the 
quantity of Latin words, such as " natat" and " canunt." 
(In the latter case, it so happens that the English rhythm 
would throw the accent on the second syllable.) All 
that is to be discovered from these pages is, that such 
helps are an abomination to Mr. Bowen. But they are 
not, and have not been, in equal disfavour with teachers 
generally. Memorial verses have been used, from the 
days of Lily and Ruddiman to our own times, by " blandi 
doctores," who have written Elementary Grammars both 
in Germany and in England. Even Dr. Donaldson has 
not disdained them in his " Complete Latin Grammar 
for the use of Students," an octavo volume of 540 pages ; 
as Mr. Bowen will see by reference to pages 28, 36, 41 
of that work. His number of rhyming lines on Gender is 



15 



about the same as mine ; and without daring to rival 
Walter Scott, I do venture to hope that the " gloomy- 
poetry" of the Primer may compete with the following 
lines, for example : — 

Nouns, in which a final -s 

A consonant preceding has, 

For instance, stirps, or ars, or frons, 

"With those in x, or -ens, or -as, 

Increasing in the genitive, 

Will femininum genus give. 
Exceptions : (1.) Sex masculina sunt in -as 

Yas (vadis), gigas, elephas, 

As (assis), mas, et adamas. 

Sed neutra sunt artocreas, 

Fas, nefas, erysipelas, 

Yas (vasis) atque buceras. 

My own experience (and it is neither a short nor a 
confined one) is decidedly in favour of smooth-sounding 
memorial rules for certain matter, exactly that kind of 
matter for which I have used them : (1) such elementary 
principles as boys may soon be trusted with ; (2) lists of 
words falling under rules like those of Gender ; (3) such 
specialties as the memory might easily let slip or confuse. 
In my own young days I often helped myself in this way. 
I have from boyhood recollected the order of the mouths 
of the Nile by the line, — 

Canop — Bolb — Seben — Phatnit — Mend — Tanit — and Pehis. 
A technical couplet remains in my mind for the Attic 
months. I suppose we all had some obligation in child- 
hood to the doggrel that tells us, — 

Thirty days hath September, 
April, June, and November ; 
February hath twenty-eight alone, 
And all the rest have thirty-one. 
Except in Leap-year : then's the time 
February's days are twenty-nine. 



16 



Many may have found help from remembering that 
The 5th or 13th day divides 
A Eoman month at Nones or Ides : 
In March, October, July, May, 
The 7th or the 15th day. 

In my old Grammar, the Genders are in memorial 
Latin rhymes, to which surely more objection may be 
made than to English; and also the Eules for Perfects 
and Supines. These last are now condemned by my 
experience and judgment, and banished accordingly : 
but the former I have found useful ; and in an English 
shape I find them yet easier and more available, having 
brought them into use here for some time past. Upon 
the whole, then, I think Mr. Bowen might well condone 
his personal antipathy to a little harmless jingle, which is 
easily learnt, and, with exercise under a zealous and careful 
master, remembered and applied without much difficulty. 
I do not suppose he wishes us still to carry boys through 
the heap of strange words, — quae priscis jure relinquas : 

Antidotus, cossus, diametrus, byssus, abyssus, 
Diphthongus, synodus, methodus, dialectus, et arctus, 

# ' # # # 

Lecythus atque atomns, grossus, pharus, et paradisus. 

To sum up : I am in favour of memorial rules, so far as 
I have used them ; (for much of what Mr. Bowen has 
cited will not appear in the published book ;) but if it 
should prove that the feeliug of Masters is against them 
by a decisive preponderance, I would not resist the substi- 
tution of unrhyming matter. 

(2.) Next comes the question of Syntax Rules in Latin. 
Here I was ready to place myself without reserve in the 
hands of the other Masters. But I understood and believe 
the opinion in favour of Latin Rules to have been unani- 
mous and strong. They were certainly carried without 



17 



a division ; I might say without debate, if I did not 
remember some sentiments expressed in their favour 
which would be very telling, if I were at liberty to name 
the speakers. It was, indeed, stipulated that they should 
be as few and concise as the nature of the subject would 
permit ; and this stipulation I have tried to fulfil to the 
utmost possible extent. They were to be followed by a 
translation, with a few notes ; and a glossary of terms 
was at a later time suggested. I fancy that the main 
argument for Latin Rules lies in their superior precision, 
and aptitude for citation; and in this argument I see 
great force. But really, when it is noticed that the 
Syntax only occupies 14 pages, and that the actual Rules, 
without Examples, amount only to about 170 lines, I 
think the question is not one of very grave importance. 
The translation gives any master the opportunity of teach- 
ing them in English to whatever extent he may desire ; 
and they are so concisely expressed, as not in more than 
four or five instances to exceed two lines ; and a great 
many of the Rules are contained in one line. 

(3.) As to Grammatical Terms. Here it is, most espe- 
cially, that Mr. Bowen's objections seem to me to take a 
merely carping and cavilling form. Of the Terms which 
he cites in page 7, only one (Quasi-passive) is of my own 
invention. The rest, as well as " the Infinite Verb," 
appear in other books. And are not Quasi-passive and 
Semi-deponent Verbs as easy terms as Neutro-passiva 
and Neutralia Passiva, to say nothing of their superior 
fitness ? I am unable to see how a ' c mountain of toil" is 
to be found in the mere heading of a section. Under the 
heading "Semi-consonant Verbs of the third conjuga- 
tion," (for which, however, I have written ' ( Verbs in io 



18 



of the third conjugation,") the boy's real work was to 
learn a short list of such verbs, and partially to conjugate 
two, capio and pattor ; with exercises corresponding in 
the Subsidia. 

Among the inaccuracies of Mr. Bowen' s pamphlet, I 
find him saying (p. 8) that I " talk of the infinitive mood 
as other people do in most parts of the book." I never 
talk of the infinitive mood. I call the infinitive (a Verb- 
noun) with gerund, supines, and participles, the Verb 
Infinite, a term, I repeat, not peculiar to me. When I 
speak of the Infinitive alone, it is but natural and proper 
that I should speak of its uses as other people do ; for I 
can assure Mr. Bowen that I am only too glad when I can 
do so without any serious compromise of principle. Nay, 
though I do consider it a rather serious compromise of 
principle to retain the usual order of the declensions and 
conjugations, instead of placing them in the just order of 
their characters, yet he will find that in the forthcoming 
Primer I have sacrificed to the convenience of existing 
books and customs, even my former purpose of inverting 
the places of rego arid audio. Verbum Infinitum is of 
course (as Mr. Bowen sees) the mere negative of Verbum 
Finitum ; and the change is not made because I prefer 
Infinitum to Infinitivum, but because the latter term is 
pre-engaged to the chief Verb -noun of the group. In 
Facciolati's Lexicon, and, I doubt not, elsewhere, he will 
find Infinitum often used for Infinitivum. 

In banishing old, or introducing new, terms, I am not 
swayed by pedantic considerations of etymological cor- 
rectness, but by the mere utilitarian desire to make the 
Science of Grammar simpler and more correct. Declen- 
sion, Case, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, Ge- 



19 



rund, Supine, Participle, and many other terms, are 
impeachable, when etymology and use are compared. 
But I should not dream of meddling with them on that 
account, both because they are too firmly in possession, 
and because their etymological falseness is forgotten in 
their established and defined use. The terms which I 
have banished or changed are such as, having no true 
fitness, also tend to confuse the learner ; as, Neuter Yerb 
(for which I use Intransitive Yerb only) ; Yerb Substantive, 
meaning the Yerb Sum (which I call Yerb-Essential) ; 
Predicate, as applied (in a sense neither strictly logical 
nor soundly grammatical) to a Substantive or Adjective 
following Sum or another Copulative Yerb ; for which 
I substitute the term Complement. A few terms I have 
introduced with a view to that improved scientific 
classification which, whatever Mr. Bowen may think, 
does really tend to enlighten and enlarge the student's 
mind. Copulative Yerbs had been thus classified in my 
older Grammar. Factitive Yerbs may be found in other 
books. Trajective Yerbs and Adjectives, or such as 
throw their force over to a " remoter object," are so 
described for the first time. The term " Suboblique" is 
used as a convenient abridgement of " Subordinate to 
Oratio Obliqua." A few other terms (Clause, Enthesis, 
Ecthesis), with those which describe the several relations 
in which words stand in construction, were necessary to 
complete that analysis of sentences, which I have endea- 
voured to carry forward to the point where Ehetoric 
succeeds to the functions of Grammar. As a matter of 
course, all this is not done in the Primer, but much of it 
is shadowed out there ; without, I hope, being allowed 
to interfere with the work of teaching young boys, if 



20 



masters have good sense enough to make the explanation 
of technical terms a minor matter for a considerable 
time after boys have begun Latin. I do not know, after 
all, that on this point Mr. Bowen and myself are so very 
far at variance. I too wish exercise-work (rendering to 
and fro) to march in advance of theory, being practised 
from models given ; but then I would always (as I before 
said) have the Scientific Outline or Grammar ready at 
hand as ' ' the Law and the Testimony/' to be appealed to 
and cited. And I would have it taught "diligently/' 
but discreetly ; according to its spirit, not according to its 
letter merely. 

And now, perhaps, Mr. Bowen' s objections have been 
sufficiently considered. He hopes he " has said nothing 
which can give offence." If he can read his letter through, 
and say honestly of every passage in it, that it was not 
designed to give offence, then he has given none. But I 
have nothing to retract. I say, he ought to have circulated 
his letter at a much earlier time, or not to have circulated 
it at all. He ought to have made his opinions and objec- 
tions known to me privately : he ought not to have 
printed for circulation an assault on a book which was 
put into his hands confidentially for a different purpose ; 
still less ought he to have criticised in print what was no 
more than an uncorrected proof, and thereby to have 
quoted passage after passage which the forthcoming book 
does not contain. He had no right to make use of his 
private information (which he neglected to use for its 
legitimate purpose) in order to connect my name with 
the book, after I had told him that my name was not to 
appear, and that I protested against being personally 
called forth. All this places Mr. Bowen himself in a 



21 



position so undesirable, that my chief feeling is that of 
deep regret that a gentleman and scholar, a Fellow of 
the noblest College in the world, should have thus com- 
mitted himself. Then, too, I see in Mr. Bowen's pam- 
phlet an absolute determination to find fault at any cost. 
While he sets forth the difficulties of grammar in a very 
formidable light, his chief assault is directed — without 
any reason assigned but his own personal prejudice — 
against the memorial artifice by which much of that 
difficulty is removed or lightened. And this from one 
who is teaching, or is supposed to be teaching, Pro- 
pria quae Maribus, As in Praesenti, and Quae Genus, 
those bugbears of my childhood, the recollection of which, 
more than anything else, impelled me to try to rescue 
from their terrors the coming generation of school-boys. 

Mr. Bowen concludes with an ominous presage of the 
effect of the Primer in hastening the extinction of Classi- 
cal Education. Now the New Primer contains 92 pages 
of lesson- work; the present Harrow Primer contains 
1 79 ; and the average number of lines in a page may be 
in the two books about equal. In other words, the New 
Primer is in quantity little more than half the old one. 
As to the difficulty of what is to be learnt, the two books 
cannot be brought into comparison : the times within 
which an average boy could learn one and the other may 
be called incommensurable. Of their respective merits, 
in any other point of view, it would be unbecoming in me 
to speak ; but Mr. Bowen's vehement exaggeration has 
given me a right to compare the new book, in respect of 
magnitude and difficulty, with that which up to this time 
he is using. 

Of the extermination of classical learning by the 



22 



advance of science, I entertain no dread. Science and 
learning ought to go hand in hand. Science must have 
the aid of language. The mother-tongue of European, 
American, and Australian languages must always be 
studied by those who would have a more than superficial 
acquaintance with the progeny. But, for a more than 
superficial acquaintance with any language, a knowledge 
of its scientific grammar is required. The valet or the 
lady's maid will pick up the AaAia perhaps sooner than 
the master or mistress; but the mind is trained by 
acquiring principles. When principles are acquired by 
sound training in one suitable language, the mastery of 
cognate languages is mere matter of detail. And what 
language so suitable for this training as Latin ? 

One last word. Mr. Bowen tells us he has reason to 
think that an opinion unfavourable to the Primer (and 
Grammar, so far as known) is very widely spread. " It 
is spread," he says, " almost as widely as the horizon of 
his own personal knowledge." And, at the close, he 
talks about <c consulting public opinion." As to this last 
expression, I deny that, on such a question, the possibility 
exists of consulting public opinion. I do not acknow- 
ledge any public opinion which can be consulted with 
advantage on this subject, but that of good scholars, 
experienced in teaching. I am disposed to think that 
most men of discretion will consider that, when a book 
has been adopted by the Head-Masters of the nine 
Schools, after the labour of two years, — when it is founded 
on another book of the same kind which had gained a 
circulation of 7000 copies a year, without ever having 
sought or received the aid of any one of those publica- 
tions which are called " organs of public opinion," — that 



23 



book may possibly deserve public confidence,, and ought 
at [.least to receive a courteous reception and a fair trial. 

Not for my own sake, not for the sake of the other 
Head-Masters, who need no defence of mine, but to quiet 
the minds of any timid persons who may read Mr. Bowen's 
pamphlet, and be alarmed by the loud and confident 
tone he uses, I append three testimonies, from totally 
distinct quarters. The first, which relates to the Gram- 
mar, is from a brother Fellow of Mr. Bowen, whose 
opinion may perhaps be thought by some of not less 
weight than Mr. Bowen's, seeing that he is the Editor of 
Lucretius. The second (on the Primer) is from a scholar 

of eminence, the Head-Master of B School, who was 

at first alarmed by the larger Grammar, supposing it 
meant for the use of beginners. The third is from an 
excellent scholar, my colleague here for fourteen years, 
but now conducting a preparatory classical school. 

You will understand how much I lament that this 
letter is called for; yet I believe you will recognise its 
necessity, and give it the moral weight of your sanction, 
which none can value more highly than myself. 

I am, my dear Dr. Moberly, 

Yours most sincerely, 

BENJ. H. KENNEDY. 

Shrewsbury ; 

March 12th, 1866. 



24 



APPENDIX. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



006 672 980 1 



I. 

" Many thanks for the portion of your Latin Grammar 
which you were so kind as to send me, and which I have 
looked through with much pleasure and admiration. I 
heartily congratulate the coming generations of school- 
boys who will get their knowledge in such a clear, sys- 
tematic, condensed shape, and will not have to charge 
their memory with what it would be better to forget." 

II. 

' ( Thanks many for the two Grammars. The Primer is 
simply admirable. It is all, or nearly all, that is wanted. 
Almost the only thing I desiderate is the set of examples, 
pp. 85 — 91 of the larger Grammar." 

III. 

" You have been kind enough to send me a copy of the 
Public School Latin Primer. Allow me, in thanking you, 
to say that both boys, and masters will have real cause to 
be grateful for it. 

" Of the matter it is hardly for me to speak, knowing 
the care and labour you have bestowed on every portion 
of the book ; which seems to have attained what it aims 
at, the highest standard of soundness and accuracy. 

' ' It is a great advantage, and one that no Grammar 
that I have seen before possesses, to be able to work the 
younger boys through the Accidence without requiring 
them to turn a page in advance of the actual page of 
lesson. This advantage your arrangement seems to me 
to secure most completely, and I feel sure that I shall 
derive great help in this particular for my own teaching." 



Printed by 0. F. Hodgson and Son, 1, Gough Square, Fleet Street, E.C. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



006 672 980 1 



